I did my first shift yesterday, what follows are some brief observations on the types of questions I answered:

• I helped a community user scan a bunch of stuff into PDF. Luckily, I attended a session on this just the week before, since every scanner and associated software is different.
• I tried to help a user print a PDF 6 per sheet. I didn’t really succeed here, because although I did figure out the 6 per sheet and duplexing functions, I couldn’t get it oriented the way the patron wanted. Frustratingly, there was no way to preview your print, so the only way to test it was to actually print out the pages, which the user had to pay for. I need to check out the printer functions a bit more in depth.
• I directed a girl to the public library (and told her what she’d need for a card) to find some audio books to listen to during an evening job. Learned that our library doesn’t carry audio books. Also, used Tina Fey’s “Bossy Pants” as my illustrative audio book when demonstrating the pub lib’s search, and explained that she could place a hold on items to get them transferred to the downtown branch. I may have nerded out a bit here.
• Helped a woman over the phone who was mistakenly told by a department secretary that she should have access to our online resources when she didn’t. Had to ask my desk partner about this one, who knew all the ins and outs of who would have access and who would not.
• Helped a woman use worldcat to find the correct edition of a book she was looking for, which she then submitted as an ILL order.
• Helped two students look up their textbooks in the catalog. In general, we don’t carry them, but I did find one. I told them to check the public library too. (A side note, I was able to get away with this a lot in library school, but only because the books I needed weren’t your traditional change every two year text books, but rather specific books written once on a topic.)
• I answered a few questions that, looking back, I should have done more explanation of how I did it (go to this page, click here, etc) rather than just handing them the information. Something to work on next time.
• Learned not to schedule a meeting for directly after my reference shift. I was in the middle of helping someone when the shift ended, and was late for the meeting.

All in all, I had a pretty good time, despite being pretty nervous (“what if I don’t know the answer to any of the questions???”). It brought to mind the best of my retail days, when I felt I was helping people out, with the added bonus of not being chastised for not “upselling” a product.

First, though- the DC area is becoming a favorite destination of mine, even though I have only been here twice now. I spent 5 hours yesterday int he National Gallery of Art, and was, of course, awed the entire time. (The only annoying part was listening to people say ‘why is that art? I could do that!’ over and over. ) Fairfax is lovely, despite the occasional disappearing sidewalks (seems people don’t walk long distances here very often?)

THAT Camp began with a great breakfast and a whole group meeting where we planned out the schedule for the day. Participants posted their presenting ideas to the blog for a couple of weeks leading up to the unconference, so the task was a bit easier.

Session 1 – Art

The first session was a session on art- specifically digital art. There were only two others including me, David Rieder and Susan Harum. We had a great discussion of what digital art might look like and how it might be supported. David and Susan had many, many great links to share, and it was great to hear how other campuses are dealing with the emergence of digital art. I’d love to see more about this topic.

Lunch!

A fantastic lunch was accompanied by Dork Shorts- brief talks on technology topic. Presenters had 5 minutes to show off their site or idea. More good link goodness, although some of the sites were in production and not yet available to the public.

Session 2 – Alternative search

I started the session with a brief slide show that addressed some of the points I’ve made in my recent alternative search postings.

| View | Upload your own

After that, I left it up to the group to talk about what we could do to make search better. I was thrilled that the group contained a number of people with much more experience with search than me, and we talked about technologies, what the users want, and how to make search better. Josh Greenburg brought up the excellent point that some of what we think of as search problems are really user interface problems- so I am looking forward to attending the interface design tomorrow.

One of the developers of Blacklight (Bess Sadler), an open source OPAC enhancement, was there and the work that they have done is absolutely amazing. I particularly liked her ideas for allowing departments to customize search for different disciplines through an easy to use GUI interface. There were a lot of other great links mentioned, which, unfortunately I lost because of an errant keystroke.

Session 3 – Making things

Bill Turkle lead two sessions on the Arduino- I attended the second. I managed to make a light blink and alter a few programs, but what I am really excited about is getting an Arduino. I have never done anything with physical computing or electronics before, so it was a steep learning curve for me. I am the proud new owner of an Arduino, though, and I have several ideas of project I can’t wait to get started with.

Session 4 – Creative Commons/Copyright

I sort of led this session, too, through I felt a bit like an impostor because I am by no means an expert on copyright. I started with a discussion on creative commons, talked about why I use it, and what some of the advantages and disadvantages are. The group talked about some of the copyright issues they have had, and we tried to brainstorm some ways to get around them. I wish I had more answers for the frustrating issue of copyright. I believe in intellectual property, but also share the belief of many that the copyright system as it stands is as much of a hindrance as a help.

One of the frustrations the group expressed was the tendency of institutions to hold back higher resolution images from the web, opting instead to only allow very low resolution images to try and make money by selling higher resolution images. One solid idea we came up with is to try and collect studies that analyze the cost vs benefits of doing this and compile a list of advantages of making higher resolution images available and free to use. I’m going to work on this – I’m wondering if I can make it into an independent study project for school.

Andrea Ferguson talked a little bit about her experiences getting her MFA at the University at the University of South Florida, and I came away much more optimistic about Fine Art in Academia. I have been afraid that digital art was stifled many places, but many conversations have now led me to believe that that just isn’t so. Makes me want to go for an MFA even more.

Recap and dinner

At the end, the group met again and Josh Greenburg made a few final remarks. Then many of us went to dinner at Minerva, a fantastic Indian restaurant here in Fairfax. The dinner and the conversation were excellent.

I look forward to another great day tomorrow, though my brain feels about full already. I have a beautiful walk to CHNM tomorrow in the morning to look forward to, during which I can clear my thoughts.

• Search that uses existing human or computer supplied metadata to find and display information.
• Search that analyzes a documents’ contents to return a result.
• Search that relies on user added metadata

Today, I’m talking about the first technique: using existing metadata in new ways to facilitate finding and browsing. Most files have some metadata attached: the date the file was created, the date it was last altered, the owner’s name, categories, etc. Many scholarly projects have extra metadata associated with it, expertly researched or generated. Library online catalogs also have rich metadata for holdings. Many systems have rich metadata, but don’t use it in a way that helps users to find what they are looking for.

Mapping

One example of using existing metadata to help a user find what they want is mapping technologies. Take crime statistics. Many police departments are now mapping crime data on interactive, online maps. The Lincoln City Police Department is doing just that:

Map of crime provided by the Lincoln, Nebraska Police Department.

Here we have already existing data from the police blotters, which has been accessible for quite some time. In years past, one could find police blotter information in the newspaper, and later these were moved online. While it was nice to have the information, and any citizen could scan the pages to find crime in his or her area, it was very difficult to answer the question “what crimes have taken place within a quarter mile of my house in the last 5 days?” By plotting the already existing information on a map, citizens can keep watch on crime in their area.

The previous example helps the user find the answer to a specific question. Other map based systems help the user browse through materials and form new questions. This is often the case in systems for scholarly research papers. As an example, The Willa Cather Archive has a forthcoming feature which maps Willa Cather’s travels across the globe and links them both to time and to objects which include primarily letters and photos.

Screenshots of Willa Cather Archive production feature. (Feature not yet available.)

Called “Mapping a writer’s world: A Geographic Chronology of Willa Cather’s Life,” this feature allows a Willa Cather scholar to explore the archive’s collections not only through time, but through space as well. This allows the scholar to make connections that would be hard to make otherwise. The time component allows users to be led through Cather’s travels. This new view, a sort of geographic biography, brings a new perspective to Willa Cather’s life and may shatter the stereotype some have of a woman who lived her life on the plains. Similarly, map based views of documents on the site “Envisaging the west: Thomas Jefferson and the roots of Lewis and Clark” help the user find documents in space as well as time, and can help the user put documents together in new ways.

“Envisaging the West” Map view.

Etsy Geolocator.

Browsing by geography is not exclusive to scholarly works and crime maps. The commercial website Etsy, where users can buy and sell handmade goods, has several different search and browse methods, one of which will to let you find items on a map. This feature may not help you find a specific item, but it can help you find items made in your own city, therefore supporting your local economy. The geography feature has the added feature of helping sellers find local, dedicated buyers, who can support a small business.

Time

Another kind of existing metadata that can be used to make finding and browsing easier is time. Most objects have some kind of time identifier- either a time stamp added by a computer or recording device (for example, most cameras automatically imprint the time a shot was taken in the metadata) or the date something was created, added later by a scholar.

Mechanically added time stamps are marginally useful for historic objects, but for newer, born digital objects they can be very useful. For example, the aforementioned website Etsy provides another way of browsing items by sorting them by the most recently listed. This could be done through a simple list of items, but Etsy has added a 3-D component and an analog style clock that helps the user browse the items. A photo program called Picasa (offered by Google) sorts photos by date taken in the default view, offering the user a long list of chronologically ordered photos. This view depends on embedded metadata and depends not on the filename or title of a shot, but metadata associated with an object.

Etsy Time Machine.

Many documents have a date associated with them that indicate when the item was created. For instance, Zotero, a scholarly citation management system, has a field for “date” where the date of an object can be entered. If the date is not supplied in the metadata, the user can add this information. This allows for a new way to view one’s collected resources: a timeline.

Zotero timeline, showing highlighted words. The Zotero timeline was created with the help of MIT’s SIMILE project.

The timeline interface also allows users to highlight items containing certain words, which lets the user do a quick check on their own sources to answer questions such as “did scholars stop using a certain term after the turn of the century?” This kind of question would be difficult to answer given the traditional list view. Another scholarly example of mapping existing metadata to a timeline is found in the Envisaging the West website, where documents have been mapped to a timeline and color coded. This allows the user to see at a glance where documents fall on the timeline and what types occurred when.

Envisaging the West timeline view.

Faceted Browsing

A final way that existing metadata might be used is to create a method for drilling down through results via faceted browsing. With this method, information about each item is extracted and offered to the viewer so they can navigate through results with ease. Faceted browsing helps both browsing and finding: the rich metadata offers otherwise new paths to follow, and can also assist in finding a specific item by breaking aspects into categories. A few examples of these systems include a library catalog which uses extensive metadata to allow a user to navigate through items, (See McMaster University Library catalog, below), or a shopping site that allows a user to set a number of controls to find exactly the item they want (See screenshots of Buzzillions and Volkswagen UK sites, below).

McMaster University catalog, powered by Endeca.

Buzzillions website, also powered by Endeca. (via Peter Morville’s Flickr Stream)

Volkswagen UK site. Users can move the sliders to control what cars are shown. (via Peter Morville’s Flickr Stream)

Tomorrow I will explore search that nalyzes a documents’ contents to return results.

One of the things I left out is that digital humanities centers are by no means the only entity that could help with digital projects or publications of art materials. This could also be accomplished through collaborations with other departments on campus (such as Computer Science)  or through a university press. I imagine that we’ll probably start to see a number of these collaborations at the same time.

The part of this that is stuck in my brain, and which I don’t have an answer for, is what one of these projects would look like? I now have an idea of what a history or literature project looks like, but not much of what an art history or especially a fine art project would look like. I have seen a few examples of art history sites, and just presenting the images as one would in a book is somehow a bit of a letdown. But I don’t know what it is that I expect to be different. As for fine art- I have seen several fine art projects on the internet, and again, I always think something is somehow missing. I’m going to ponder this and research more and come up with some links and ideas.

Should digital humanities centers take it upon themselves to encourage fine art and art history faculty to create digital projects?

That would probably involve searching for funding from different venues and changing some assumptions, but I certainly think it is possible. It might mean specifically reaching out to fine art and art history faculty and demonstrating what a digital humanities center can do for them. More than just getting images on the web, it would mean a new kind of exploration for art history and fine art. Imagine an art history digital project illustrated with beautiful, high resolution zoomable (and downloadable) images that explain a concept better than static text ever could. Or a faculty artist’s web page which explores the meaning of the work in depth with (again) high resolution images interwoven with text and multimedia that brings the work alive. Better yet, imagine at least some of that content released under a license so others can reuse it, at least for educational purposes.

Ben noted in the comments of the last post that very few images that come up in a Google image search for an artist come from .edu domains. That does not surprise me—many artists and curators, especially in the academic realm, are nervous about posting images online and are stingy with high resolution images. However, what is considered high resolution has changed. I think of high resolution as above 1200×900—but many images on museum websites are around 300 pixels. Some museums sell high quality copies, but they could provide a nice big resolution and still sell the REALLY high resolution photo. Museum websites often are also stingy about letting you download images for your own use.

Ben also commented that some projects might be squashed by university lawyers. I think that is absolutely true, but that has been true for digital humanities in general. One of the great things about these centers is that they are constantly looking for materials to publish online, and will push for access for all. This is important because if we (as a society) don’t push for fair use from copyright holders, the copyright holders will take advantage and achieve ever more restrictions on use. This is true for books as well as paintings—but books, of course, are easier to deal with, because there are multiple copies. So we can go ahead and digitize that book that is clear of copyright, because it can be bought for a decent price, or our library already has a copy. With paintings, however, it’s more tricky. Many museums disallow photography in all galleries, even if the some galleries contain out of copyright works. This is all the more reason, I think, for digital humanities centers to step in, especially on campuses that hold works of art.

Ira Greenburg also left a great comment, saying:

Where I teach, “digital” seems to get inserted into every conversation these days – ranging in tone from vitriolic to sacrosanct. As a painter turned programmer (I still consider myself an artist), I find the debate tiresome and primarily fueled by ignorance on both sides.

I totally agree with this. I sometimes question whether digital humanities centers will continue past the next 10 or 20 years because I hope, eventually, that the facilities to create digital works, projects, and research, will be prevalent in every department on campus. Right now, though, a faculty member who wants to attempt a digital project has little support on many campuses. If they want to write a book, there’s a fairly straightforward process to follow, but a digital project requires expertise many don’t have.

Digital humanities centers are uniquely placed to reach out to fine art and art history faculty and create some unique and very exciting projects. Funding might be tough at first- but then, it was for digital humanities projects too in the beginning. I have a feeling that quite a few individual art faculty would really appreciate the help- some want to move online, but don’t know how or what the web can do for them. And if my suspicions are correct, they probably won’t get a lot of help from within their own department. (Again, depending on the institution.)

At this point I still have more questions than answers. I’ll end with a fantastic quote from Ira’s comment:

Working at the level of code, established disciplinary boundaries dissolve (and eventually the temples that house them will as well.)

It’s not like I need to decide on a career path RIGHT NOW, but I am getting a lot more questions to the effect of “what are you going to do once you are out of library school?” and I don’t know how to answer. I feel like a bit of a failure not having a definite area of librarianship I want to go into. For the record, I know that’s so NOT true, but it’s just a feeling, gnawing away at me.

Add to that stuff school work and work work and committee work and school paperwork BS on TOP of the regular school work and you have an exhausted to the point of collapse Karin.

Which brings me to the real point of this post. I remember reading a while back about saying yes (was it on Kathryn’s Blog? Maybe…) and I sort of unconsciously took this advice to heart. I have been saying yes a LOT more than I would have a couple of years ago, when I protected my time rather zealously. The results have been good and bad. In addition to full time work and grad school, I have been to 5 conferences, presented several times, written some articles, I serve on the display committee at work, I’m secretary for the Nebraska Library Association NMRT, and I attend pretty much any professional development thing I can. I have also networked my butt off, and in the process made a lot of really cool acquaintances. I never feel like I am doing enough, though, because librarians are overachievers (at least a lot of them are) and plenty of them do tons more than I do. (For example: danah boyd posted recently about work/life balance.)

So I feel a little down when I realize I can’t do it all. Why not? What’s wrong with me? Where has all my energy gone? I kept expecting to get over this funk, to perk back up to the energy level I was at even last semester, but it is just not happening.

Saying yes all the time has led to some really great experiences though, and I wouldn’t trade any of it. All the conferences I have gone to have been a blast. I’ve met several people I now consider to be friends. I’ve been able to travel more in the last two years than in the 5 years previous to that. Best of all, I continually feel like I am doing something with meaning. I’m not just wandering around- I may be interested in too much, but it is all interesting to me. I’m not bored, just tired.

Unfortunately, there’s no break in sight for me- My semester ends May 2nd, and the following Monday I start my practicum. 90 house does not seem like a lot, but crammed into three months in which I’m traveling a lot (and still working another job), it will be a pretty large chunk of time. I’m also taking a class this summer and attending two conferences. I do, thankfully, have a vacation in there before the ALA conference in Anaheim, but travel for me is about packing in as much as possible into a trip, not so much relaxing. I will have about 3 weeks in August where I will only have full time work.

This turned into a rather long post to say this: I’m gonna blog more, I promise. :)

The other reason I have not posted about these feelings and thoughts is because it is hard to do so without naming names. Much of what I want in a job depends on where that job is, and that has to do with family, friends, and of course, my husband who is both my family and my best friend. (OK, trying not to sound too mushy, but he really is.) Also, the library community is small. It’s not hard to determine who I am talking about, even if I don’t name names. This has mede me super careful about what I post, especially lately.

So please forgive me if my posts come off sounding a little awkward and vague- it’s where my brain is right now.

I recently withdrew my name from a job that I really, really wanted. I think I had a good chance at getting the position, but it was just too far from home, in a place my husband would have had a hard time relocating. I knew this when I applied, of course. The plan was that I would spend the week in this other place and then come home on the weekends. It sounds OK on paper, and in planning, but when we actually sat down to figure out costs and logistics, it sort of fell apart. There were a lot of little things that, if taken alone, would have been fine, but all together would make the job unmanageable.

Then there was the fact that I am, after all, still in school- still carrying a full coarse load while working full time. Travel would mean cutting 5-6 hours out of my week when I have little time to spare. I can’t help but feel I should have considered all these aspects of the job before I applied, and I feel bad for not doing so. On the other hand, sometimes it takes a face to face confrontation with a possibility before it feels real. I am very grateful to the search committee of the school I applied to. It sounds like they are doing wonderful things and I am disappointed I will not be a part of it. They asked really great questions that really showed they are thinking about many of the same things I am, and it will be hard to come by a job that would allow me the opportunities this one would have.

The whole experience has made me cautious about job applications. For a while now I have been adding more and more to my to do pile- applying for a job seemed like the logical next step. I realize now that I need to take a step back and reassess. Full time work and school is hard- when I add to that presenting and writing and conferences and serving as secretary for the NMRT of the NLA, I’m pretty much filled up to capacity.

At the same time all this was happening, or maybe because of it, I have found myself drifting back to art as a pastime. I sort of stopped making art after I finished my Bachelors in Fine Art. The preparation for the final show and my final classes were overwhelming (I was working near full time then, too). I was constantly making art, and that art was constantly evaluated and critiqued, and it got exhausting. I not only had to create, but I had to think very carefully and pointedly about what I was creating, how to explain it, how to defend it, and how to present it. The thought of making a living at as an artist started to take on an ominous tone- a life full of creating for someone else, and to base my living off that… well, let’s just say I’m glad I found librarianship as another option.

So I’ve been painting again, and it feels good. It’s been a while since I’ve had a hobby completely outside of library stuff. Even the “fun” books I read last summer almost all had to do with some aspect of libraries- technology, management, etc. To get my artwork out there I’ve started a “free artwork” photoset in Flickr- I will occasionally put up small paintings there for free (and I usually announce on Twitter). There is something immensely gratifying about giving things away for free.

I realize that when I push myself too hard, I end up wanting to turn away from the things I am most passionate about, so I am on a quest to regain some balance in my life. I was so sparky last semester- my thoughts seemed to mesh up with what I was learning in class and the blogosphere supported it all. Now my feed reader constantly taunts me with the little “1000+” unread posts signal. I’ve taken a laissez faire approach to that- not gonna weed or do anything, just read when I can. I feel like I’m constantly running to catch up, not sprinting ahead of the pack. I hope that this spring break I can emerge with new enthusiasm and vigor, and more purpose about what I want to do and how I can accomplish it.

Photos: splorp BugMan50 capturingJenn (last one mine)

The last few weeks have been very, very weird for me, and have shaken up both my outlook and my expectations.

Here’s the short version: On several people’s recommendation, I have applied for a job as a librarian here in Nebraska. I wasn’t planning on applying for jobs so soon (I don’t graduate until December) but the job description sounds really, really great so I went for it. While that was going on, I got an email that led to a conversation that just blew my mind and really opened up my eyes to different career trajectories I could take. I spent a few days sort of frozen with the fear that I would take the wrong path and end up in a job I dislike or end up with no money (a not so secret fear of mine).

Then I snapped out of it. I realized that there’s no mistake that’s irreversible, and what I want right now is experience more than anything. It’s still hard making a decision when I don’t know what lies ahead, but that’s always the case, right? And I don’t have to make a decision right this second, anyway. Whatever I end up doing will tell me more about what I really enjoy, and hopefully I’ll figure out the perfect job for me (and a way to secure it) in time.

The funny thing is, I already really like where I am and much of what I do. I am just a lowly assistant – I schedule meetings, I take minutes, and I generally try to make my boss’s life easier, but as time goes on I get more varied and interesting things to do. For example: maintaining the internal wiki we use to track the progress of projects, designing project sites, maintaining the website for the Center, helping with podcasts, and being a general design-y person. I think I could be quite happy staying here, but there’s just no money in the budget for me (that is, me as a professional after I graduate). In the end, that may be for the best- I think perhaps I need an impetus to try something new.

I decided to go to library school because of the huge variety of things I can do with the degree. Now that I am getting to the job hunting phase of my education, this range of options is both a good and a bad thing. Good, because I can see almost limitless opportunities ahead of me. Bad, because there is so much I want to experience that there is no way one job could satisfy all I want to do.

All in all, I couldn’t be happier with the way things are going. I’m excited about so many things, and I think I could be of help in so many areas, that there are lots of possible job opportunities- enough that I can, perhaps, be a little choosy. I am meeting amazing people along the way and having incredible conversations.

Now if I can just adjust to the change in time and get my sleeping patterns back to normal, I’ll be all set.

I will say that I am not a typical student (I’m not a student of UNL at all) – I use Linux at home, I try new applications on a very regular basis, I am committed to open source and open standards. I have talked to several students, though, and I am a student myself, and currently have the joy of having to use web based Outlook for my student email through Missouri-Columbia.

The first thing that immediately came to mind after I watched both presentations was: Google looks easy, Microsoft looks hard. I wish I had attended the tech meetings for the two companies, maybe then I could get a better idea of how easy or hard integration would be. Just as far as usability goes, though, Microsoft Live looks complex, has lots of options, and generally suffers from the same kind of feature bloat we have come to expect from Microsoft products. This could be a good thing, if you are a long time Microsoft user. You already know where things are and what features to look for. But if you are not a Microsoft user, this can be very annoying. Google, on the other hand, looked clean with a few well chosen features.

Both services offer POP/IMAP email access- so if you don’t want to use the web email interface, you don’t have to. That said, I can’t ignore my preference for Gmail. The email threading feature alone has made the switch to Gmail absolutely worth it. The Microsoft interface is very nice looking, but looked slow and clunky and, of course, the “premium” version only works with Internet Explorer. If you use any other browser, you get a stripped down “lite” version. It is true that Gmail, too, has a stripped down HTML version, but I can get to both Gmail versions from most of my browsers.

Both services offer 24×7 tech support. Both services offer no advertising to current students. It was my understanding that alumni get advertising. Google mentioned faculty and staff frequently, and it was clear that they would love to take over all the campus’s email. Microsoft spoke a lot about integrating with our existing faculty and staff email and calendaring service (Lotus Notes), although he did make a couple of overtures to the fact that he’d love to switch us to Outlook. The Microsoft guy, of course, talked a lot about exchange and how standard it is and how well it works with existing systems.

In fact, the main thing Microsoft has going for it at this point is that it can integrate rather well with existing email applications. Microsoft email can tap into the existing global address books and provide student address books to the traditional email. From a tech point, this could be a deal breaker, I’m not sure. I think most students won’t have a problem with quickly looking for a faculty member’s email address on www.unl.edu, but faculty members are quite used to being able to access student email addresses from inside the email client.

Google, on the other hand, has collaborative features going for it. Microsoft offers collaboration via Microsoft Office Live – which requires students use Microsoft Office if they want to edit online documents. According to the Microsoft guy, Office Live documents are versioned every 12 hours or when you tell them to, rather than every time you make an edit like in Google Docs. The sharing features are just clunky in Office Live, especially compared to Google Docs’ simple interface. Google just wins in the matter of collaboration, hands down. Teachers should never have to tell students to go out and by Word to effectively collaborate.

Google talked a lot about outsourcing IT, while Microsoft talked about integrating IT into existing structures. I got the impression that the Microsoft way might mean more job security for IT employees, which is probably not accidental: IT’s perceptions of a product play heavily into these decisions, and if they say no a project is out. Google said IT people would be freed to work on more innovative technology uses, which sounds good in theory.

One thing that definitely left an impression on me (and this is where my biases come into play) is that the Google guy talked a lot about open standards and working across platforms – he always said Mac, PC and Linux. Most people just pretend no one uses Linux. Microsoft, on the other hand, treated non-Microsoft users as second class and almost non-existent. At one point, someone asked what the Microsoft solution would be like for Linux users, and the Microsoft presenter said (not quoting because I don’t have an exact quote) well, Linux users are mostly desktop client email users anyways, and they can still access the lite version of the web mail, which will probably be fine for them. He then went on to generalize about Mac users and how they need a very simple user experience, because they aren’t very technical. I found this funny since most of the more techie people I know use macs, but I digress. Another person asked if the Microsoft Office Live collaboration features would work with the Mac version of Office, and the presenter didn’t know.

<rant>
It also became painfully clear that Microsoft expects others to do the R&D to make their web mail platform browser agnostic. The Microsoft presenter mentioned several times that they were working with the Firefox people to get them to change Firefox so the Microsoft web mail would work. They said they’re working with “our friends in Cupertino” to make Safari work better, but that Apple was not as cooperative. This really bugged me- it’s the web application developer’s job to make the site work for the browser, not the other way around. He also said Safari doesn’t use javascript, which of course isn’t true.
</rant>

OK, now that have that out of my system…

One thing I did like about Microsoft’s presentation is that the presenter said that some schools have chosen to use both Google and Microsoft systems. Google didn’t mention this.

A few other small differences

Google

• Lets you brand with the university icon.
• Provides a start page (iGoogle, pretty much).
• Is working with open source course management systems like Sakai and Moodle
• Will let pretty much anyone associated with the university get a branded email, including parents of students, etc., though only current students and staff will get ad free interfaces.
• Went over privacy policy fairly well – “we do not claim ownership of your data.”

Microsoft

• Also talked about a service called “Skydrive” – basically an online thumbdrive. 1 gig for now, more later.
• Seemed to think everyone uses MSN messenger. (?)
• Did live demo of products, which Google didn’t do.
• IT has more control- can go in and trace emails, see if one was sent, etc. Not sure if they can do this with Google- but would they want to?
• Microsoft’s calendar will support iCal format.

What I want

I’m still not 100% sure on the idea of student email outsourcing, but from a pricing standpoint, it makes so much sense that it is probably inevitable. I do love the Google suite of products, and I really like that they play a little nicer with different OS’s, so I hope they either choose Google or leave the choice up to the students. I have a hunch most students will choose Google, but maybe not- in any case, it should be the student’s choice. In my ideal world, the student would be able to get a free for life POP/IMAP address that could be used with any email program and was not tied to an outside service, but I suppose I’m just dreaming on that front, huh?

Today, I’ll share a few do’s and do not’s I thought of- feel free to add more in the comments.

Do: Learn how each social network works. There are different ways to use each service, and it is likely you won’t use all of the features on any of them. For instance, I am not very active in groups on Flickr, but I always look at my contacts’ photos, comment where appropriate, and monitor my conversations. (Flickr makes this easy!)

Don’t: Use networks to spam people. Individualized messages are great, form letter sounding messages are not so great.

Do: Choose the networks that work for you. Twitter may not be your thing, and that’s fine. Find the networks that work for you and use them. (Hint: if you like Scrabble, join Facebook and challenge somebody to a Scrabulous game.)

Don’t: Join networks for the sole purpose of asking for a favor. Joining one day and then asking people if they know of any good jobs the next isn’t kosher. If you are going to use social networks, you have to be social- start early, and keep it up!

Do: Put up pictures of yourself. I use an icon for my profile pic (it is fairly distinctive) everywhere, but I also include another picture of myself if allowed. I also put my picture on my about page. People like to know who they are talking to, and it will increase the likelihood people will recognize you should you ever meet them.

Don’t: Put up potentially embarrassing pictures of yourself. I know this should go without saying, but it bears repeating. If you are already on social networks, you might want to clean up your profile a bit before you start friending professional contacts. (e.g. get rid of pictures of yourself surrounded by beer cans.) There’s always the option of maintaining a separate identity- that always seemed like a lot of work to me, but it is certainly do-able.

Do: Check your name in search engines. If you have a very common name, you might want to consider adding your middle initial or using a nick name to differentiate yourself from the other “Jane Smith’s” out there. If you do this, you have to be consistent and use it everywhere- resume, business card, website, social networks, etc. If nothing else, make sure that your name + library (or whatever industry keyword you want) brings up something about you.

Don’t: Fall for “Search Engine Optimization” offers. If you stick with a well known blogging platform (like WordPress, Blogger, Movable Type, Drupal, etc.), enable name based URL’s, and especially if you buy your own domain name, your site will already be optimized. You can increase your ranking by commenting on others’ blogs (real comments, not “mee toos”) linking from any other sites you own, and perhaps asking a few well known acquaintances to link to you, if appropriate. The absolute best thing you can do is develop content: i.e. write in your blog.

Do: Share your knowledge. Some might say that you don’t want to give everything away, but especially in the early part of your career you have to demonstrate that you have something to say before you can reasonably think of charging for your knowledge and skills.

Don’t: Become locked into your opinion. It’s perfectly OK to revisit something you wrote about before and say you changed your mind. That’s not wishy washy- that’s showing the ability to think in the face of new evidence and make an informed decision.

Do: Carry business cards with your web address at all times. I’m a student, so I don’t have professional cards- I just ordered some Moo Cards and use those. The point is to make yourself findable whether you meet someone online or off.

Don’t: Complain, gripe, be snarky, or otherwise be overly negative. I’m not saying everything has to be sunny and roses, but try to put a rational face on things and look at the bright side whenever possible. Try offering a suggestion for change or research how other institutions handle similar situations. If you’re not sure, get a second opinion or sit on a post for a day.

Do: Utilize a number of social networking sites in your “main” site. For instance, instead of uploading pictures to your private web space, put them on Flickr or another photo sharing site. You can incorporate books you are reading into your site through LibraryThing, or show the blogs you are reading using a Google Reader widget. Link back and forth to different services with wild abandon.

Do: Similar to above: Link early, link often. You might think that linking to another person’s website doesn’t really do anything, but it does. They might see that incoming link, and link back, or come visit your site.

Don’t: Limit your networking to online. OK, this probably doesn’t belong on this page, but it’s important. Try to make it to local conferences, write articles for your state library association publication, give local presentations and join mentoring programs. These are just a few examples of ways you can get involved locally. Online networking is great, but meeting someone face to face really solidifies a relationship. And dress nice when you attend the conferences- you never know when you might get an on the spot job interview or pre-interview.

Do: Use Creative Commons licensing whenever possible. You can get a license for your work here, and on some sites (like Flickr) you can set a license for the content you upload. I have most of my content under a CC By: license- which means anyone can use it, but they have to credit me. This does two things: it gives you more links back, and it just about guarantees your work will be spread more widely. If you are worried about stealing, think of it this way: If someone wants to steal your online content, they will. It’s happened to me. But some people will look for content they can use legally, and you want those people to find your content, because they are good about linking back. Besides, it’s just cool when you find one of your pictures on someone else’s blog header.